A patrol boat, the “tinclad” Silver Lake.
The powerful ironclad ram Choctaw. From Photographic History of the Civil War.
Although not requested, Pemberton also received the verdict of his army in a message from an unknown private, signed “Many Soldiers.” Taking pride in the gallant conduct of his fellow soldiers “in repulsing the enemy at every assault, and bearing with patient endurance all the privations and hardships,” the writer requested his commanding general if he would “Just think of one small biscuit and one or two mouthfuls of bacon per day,” concluding with the irrefutable logic of an enlisted man, “If you can’t feed us, you had better surrender us, horrible as the idea is.”
Maj. Gen. M. L. Smith, commanding the Confederate left at Vicksburg. Courtesy Library of Congress.
Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson, commanding the Union XVII Corps. Courtesy Library of Congress.
On July 3, white truce flags appeared along the center of the Confederate works. A few hours later, Grant and Pemberton met beneath an oak tree, on a slope between the lines, to arrange for the capitulation of Vicksburg and its army of 29,500. It had been 14 months since Farragut’s warships had first engaged the Vicksburg batteries, 7 months since Grant’s first expedition against the city, and 47 days since the beginning of the siege. On the morning of July 4, 1863, while Northern cities celebrated Independence Day, Vicksburg was formally surrendered. The Confederate troops marched out from their defenses and stacked their rifles, cartridge boxes, and flags before a hushed Union Army which witnessed the historic event without cheering—a testimonial of their respect for the courageous defenders of Vicksburg, whose line was never broken.
Into the city which had defied him for so long, and which nearly proved the graveyard rather than the springboard of his military career, rode General Grant. At the courthouse, where the Stars and Bars had floated in sight of the Union Army and Navy throughout the siege, he watched the national colors raised on the flagstaff, and then proceeded to the waterfront. With every vessel of the Navy sounding its whistle in celebration, he went aboard Porter’s flagship to express gratitude for the work of the fleet.